A wide variety of mating electrical connectors employ pairs of interengaging pin and socket terminals for interconnecting a plurality of circuits or wires through the mated connectors. The pin and socket terminals often are called male and female terminals.
One type of female terminal includes a generally rectangular socket or receptacle at its mating end for receiving a generally rectangular pin or male terminal. The mating end is formed by an elongate body defining top and bottom walls and opposite cantilevered side walls. The terminal conventionally is stamped and formed from sheet metal material, and the top and bottom walls have open seams or slits, whereby the opposite side walls can flex about axes generally perpendicular to the elongated axis of the terminal. This type of flexing has created some problems.
For instance, it is common to form dimples in the opposite side walls at the mating end of the female terminal for establishing a more positive contact with an inserted male or pin terminal. Preferably, a pair of longitudinally spaced contacting dimples are formed on each flexible side wall. Unfortunately, since the side walls flex about axes which are generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the terminal, and since the dimples in each pair are spaced longitudinally of the terminal, when the male terminal is fully inserted there is unequal pressure applied by the contacting dimples. In fact, the endmost dimple in each longitudinally spaced pair often establishes little contacting pressure. This leads to further complications when the dimples are plated with a highly conductive material, such as gold. Uneven wear occurs on the dimples, and the gold plating actually can wear off of one of the contacting dimples before the other.
A further problem involves centering of the inserted male terminal which has a tendency to seat in the bottom of the mating end of the female terminal. Since the opposite side walls of the split mating end of the female terminal pivot about axes generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the terminal, no provisions can be made at the mating end to facilitate centering of the male terminal in the female terminal.
This invention is directed to solving the problems identified above and satisfying a need for an improved elongate female electrical terminal.